Nicolas Abel Bayona Ba Meya or Bayona Ba Meya Muna Kimvimba (25 November 1938 – 26 August 1998) was a Congolese jurist who served as First President of the Supreme Court of Justice of Zaire from 1975 until 1983.

Biography

Nicolas Bayona Ba Meya was born as Nicolas Bayonne on 25 November 1938 in Voka,

Bas-Congo Kongo Central ( kg, Kongo dia Kati ), formerly Bas-Congo is one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Matadi. History At the time of independence, the area now encompassing Kongo Central was part of the g ...

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

. He studied humanities at a

minor seminary A minor seminary or high school seminary is a secondary day or boarding school created for the specific purpose of enrolling teenage boys who have expressed interest in becoming Catholic priests. They are generally Catholic institutions, and de ...

in Kibula at the College Notre-Dame de Mbanza-Mboma from 1952 until 1960. He earned a law degree from

Lovanium University Lovanium University (french: Université Lovanium) was a Catholic Jesuit university in Kinshasa in the Belgian Congo. The university was established in 1954 on the Kimwenza plateau, near Kinshasa. The university continued to function after indep ...

four years later. On 23 July 1966 Bayona was appointed to serve as a judge for the Court of Appeal of

Lubumbashi Lubumbashi (former names: ( French), (Dutch)) is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the country's southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia. The capital and principal city of the Haut-Katang ...

. On 14 August 1968 he was removed from his post and appointed to the

Supreme Court of Justice A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. In 1969 he earned his doctorate in law from Lovanium. Afterwards he became a professor and in 1971 became the dean of faculty of law at the Kinshasa campus of the National University of Zaire (formerly Lovanium). In 1975, when the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

was considering a case concerning the transfer of power in

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...

, Bayona submitted his opinion to the court on the legal principle of ''

terra nullius ''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land". It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it. : : ...

'', which entails that a state may assume sovereignty over any unclaimed territory. He criticised ''terra nullius'' as materialistic and a contributory factor to the

partition of Africa The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonization of most of Africa by seven Western European powers during a short period known as New Imperialism ( ...

among European empires. He instead posited that a spiritual, ancestral connection between a plot of land and the people born of it offered a stronger basis for claims to sovereignty. Bayona served as the First President of the Supreme Court of Justice from 1975 until 1983. In March 1996 he was made President of the Commission Nationale des Élections, a body designed to ensure the establishment of a free election by 1997 in Zaire as part of a democratic transition under President Mobutu Sese Seko. Opposition groups regarded Bayona as a puppet of Mobutu and doubted his ability to fairly oversee the process. The commission was disbanded in May 1997 after

Laurent-Désiré Kabila Laurent-Désiré Kabila () (27 November 1939 – 18 January 2001) or simply Laurent Kabila ( US: ), was a Congolese revolutionary and politician who was the third President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1997 until his assassinatio ...

seized power. He died on 26 August 1998.

Citations

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bayona Ba Meya, Nicolas Abel Lovanium University alumni Lovanium University faculty Democratic Republic of the Congo judges 20th-century jurists 1938 births 1998 deaths